Box Office: Main Tera Hero Tops The Chart But Jal Is Worth The Watch

Bollywood produced a mixed bag on April 4, including Jal, a quasi-art house movie directed by debutant Girish Malik, David Dhawan-directed rom-com-action flick Main Tera Hero and Ebn-E-Batuta, a sci-fi overloaded with various issues and laced with humour. But true to the Bollywood tradition, the madcap entertainer MTH, starring David’s son Varun and the sizzling female leads Ileana D’Cruz and Nargis Fakri, has topped the box office chart this time.

Main Tera Hero had an average start though, netting just Rs 6.6 crore at home on the opening Friday and recording 35-40% occupancy rate. But in spite of the cricket fever built around the India-Sri Lanka T20 World Cup final on Sunday, business picked up exceedingly well for the wild and whacky comedy flick and it netted a little over Rs 22 crore during the first weekend, as per industry estimates. It did moderately well on the crucial Day 4 (Monday, April 7) and collections at domestic box office amounted to nearly Rs 4 crore, as per industry estimates. Although MTH is a big budget movie and cost around Rs 40 crore, the money would be recovered soon, going by ticket sales. The movie is produced by Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor for Balaji Motion Pictures.

MTH is Varun Dhawan’s second appearance in Bollywood – after Karan Johar-directed commercial success Student of the Year, which also starred Sidharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt. The movie raked in Rs 28-29 crore nett in the first weekend, considerably higher than what Main Tera Hero did in spite of some extensive pre-release hype.

Before we tell you what worked and didn’t work for this David Dhawan comedy, let’s take a look at the box office performances of the other two releases. Purab Kohli-Tannishtha Chatterjee-Kirti Kulhari starrer Jal has a pertinent theme – it portrays the wild and water-starved Rann of Kutch and its people locked in an eternal battle with their hostile surroundings. The movie has been criticised by many as a ‘festival’ flick while others vouch it is as commercial as can be. But either way, it has cut no ice with the domestic audience and reportedly grossed less than Rs 3 crore at home after the first weekend while fourth day collections stood at Rs 40-50 lakh. DAR Motion Pictures, in collaboration with One World Films, released the movie across 385 screens, which means it is targeting a niche audience.

Ebn-E-Batuta, the third release of the week, also bombed the box office. The movie grossed some Rs 40-50 lakh on the first day, but the opening weekend numbers are yet to come in. Directed by Varun Middha, this one had an estimated budget of Rs 5 crore, but may follow the same fate as Jal.

Coming back to Main Tera Hero, it is not difficult to understand what makes this movie so popular. This one provides a laughter riot – a mad concoction of romance, action and David Dhawan’s brand of none-too-subtle comedy. But the best thing to happen to us is the star son Varun Dhawan, lauded by most critics as the Young Govinda. It is a remake of the Telugu blockbuster Kandireega – telling the story of Sreenath Prasad or Seenu (Varun Dhawan). The problem kid comes to the big city to put his life in order, carries out his romantic escapades with two babes, Sunaina (Ileana D’Cruz) and Ayesha (Nargis Fakhri), gets into fisticuffs with Sunaina’s cop beau Angad (Arunoday Singh) and gets entangled with Ayesha’s mafia dad Vikrant (Anupam Kher) and his gang. What follows is pure mayhem, but all things are sorted out well in the traditional Bollywood style and true lovers unite at the journey’s end. Quite a hilarious flick if you are ready to put logic away for some time and go with the Bollywood flow.



In stark contrast, Jal portrays a reality as harsh as the arid land of Kutch. Here we have Bakka (Purab Kohli), who has the power of divining water spots (does it remind you of Nana Patekar in Thodasa Roomani Ho Jaayen?), his sweetheart Kesar (Kirti) hailing from a rival village and animal activist Kim (Saidah Jules). Kim is out to save the water-starved flamingos, but not too interested to help the clan living there. Set against a stark yet magnificent backdrop, Jal had all the elements to become an epic tale of love and treachery, hope and hopelessness, apathy and ardour. Instead, viewers are handed out a simplistic story that fails to follow the stream of life (in other words, water) from the past into the future, the way it goes with human history. But the movie is worth the watch because of its offbeat theme while Purab Kohli literally sets the screen on fire.

Ebn-E-Batuta may remind you of James Cameron’s Avatar, but there the similarities end. In this India-made sci-fi flick, the aliens have invaded Planet Earth to conquer it, but three friends (Omkar Das Manikpuri, Dev Gohar and Satyendra Khare) try and leverage the power of the extra-terrestrials for their own advancement. Some social issues and fun moments are also there, but this one hardly matches the Hollywood flicks in terms of special effects. Kids may still enjoy the movie but with Bhoothnath Returns (starring Amitabh Bachchan) hitting the theatres on April 11, Ebn-E-Batuta is not likely to enjoy much exposure at the box office during the second weekend.

Images: Wikipedia